-LRB- CNN -RRB- After more than nine years of traveling through the solar system , NASA 's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back its first color image of Pluto .

The initial picture released on Tuesday shows a couple of orange-tinged blobs : Pluto and its largest moon , Charon .

But the probe will soon be beaming back much sharper images and a wealth of other information about Pluto 's remote , unexplored corner of the solar system .

`` This is pure exploration ; we 're going to turn points of light into a planet and a system of moons before your eyes , '' said Alan Stern , New Horizons ' principal investigator .

Launched in 2006 , New Horizons is nearing the crucial point in its epic voyage of more than 3 billion miles . The probe is due to make its closest approach to Pluto on July 14 .

`` In an unprecedented flyby this July , our knowledge of what the Pluto system is really like will expand exponentially , and I have no doubt there will be exciting discoveries , '' said John Grunsfeld , an astronaut and associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate .

Discovered in 1930 , Pluto was once considered to be the smallest planet in the solar system . But scientists have since revised that view because of Pluto 's size and location , demoting it to the status of `` dwarf planet '' : a planet that 's too small to clear other objects out of its way .

Pluto is 1,400 miles wide , roughly half the width of the continental United States . At 3.6 billion miles out in the solar system , it 's about 40 times as far from the sun as Earth is .

By discovering more about Pluto and its moons , New Horizons will shed light on a little-known third zone of the solar system , beyond the rocky planets and the gas giants .

The area , known as the Kuiper Belt , contains `` mysterious small planets and planetary building blocks , '' according to NASA . It 's known for producing comets , such as Halley 's Comet , which orbits the sun about every 75 years .

New Horizons will use its array of cameras and other instruments to study Pluto 's surface and atmosphere , as well as its moons , which number at least five . It will also be on the lookout for rings and other satellites .

Stern said the spacecraft 's encounter was set to be `` an exploration bonanza unparalleled in anticipation since the storied missions of Voyager in the 1980s . ''

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The New Horizons spacecraft captures image of Pluto and its largest moon

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It 's set to reveal new details as it nears the remote area of the solar system